


short of breath

by Alectrona (DreamyRequiem)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Multi, how did axel find kairi in kh2............it's too Convenient, so au where axel doesn't find kairi and kairi joins sora's party
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2019-12-25 12:39:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18261479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamyRequiem/pseuds/Alectrona
Summary: Kairi is sick of waiting, sick of staying behind, sick of people telling her that her best friends are dead.So she's leaving, and she's not letting anyone stand between her and her friends again. Not this so-called Organization and not the Heartless. Never again.





	1. REunite

**Author's Note:**

> beta`d by my gf Laura!!
> 
> anyway i was replaying kh2 a few months back and i had a thought of 'how tf did axel even find kairi??' like why would he even check twilight town when there are loads of other worlds to check?
> 
> it feels way too convenient, especially as it happens literally right before sora shows up so.....fic where axel doesn't find kairi :^ )

The sun set ahead of her, nostalgic for all the wrong reasons. Because it only served as yet another reminder that her best friends were not at her side, and that she was not at theirs.

"Maybe...waiting isn't enough." She muttered to herself, her hands pressed against her soft white shirt. Kairi felt sick to her stomach because maybe if she hadn't waited so long, she could've caught up with them sooner and found out how she could help, even if it was only with magic.

Yet she had no idea how to even leave the islands, which meant there was no way she could even meet up with them. How could she catch up with them if she didn't know how to?

Someone clapped behind her, to the left, and Kairi spun around. Standing along the beach just as she did was a man wearing a black cloak and long spiky crimson hair. Once it was clear her had her attention, the man said, "I completely agree with you. Waiting for someone to come back when they can't...it just doesn't work, huh? Now, how about I help you out?"

"Help me out how?" She asked, suspicious as strange silver creatures phased into existence around them.

He hummed. "Well, I can help you find Sora, at least. You just have to come with me..." The man raised his hand, offering it to her.

Kairi glared at him, stepping away. "I don't know, you seem a bit too threatening for me to want to work with." She, not for the first time, wished she had something to defend herself with.

The man's expression twisted and he sighed. "Well, guess we're doing this the hard way. Go." He waved the hand that he had offered her up and the strange creatures creeped towards her with ill intent.

She grimaced and started looking around, trying to find a way out. Which way to go...? 

A dog barked behind her. Kairi spun around and spotted a small yellow dog barking from next to a strange portal of darkness, just like the one the man had come from. She eyeballed it as the dog barked at him a couple more times. It was obvious she didn't have a choice.

Kairi tossed her caution to the wind and all but threw herself into the dark portal. She stopped just on the other side looking around frantically. There was another dark portal not too far away and she rushed towards it, ducking into it as she heard the dog follow her and the previous portal closed.

She stumbled across the threshold of the portal and fell to her knees. There were gasps around her as she scrambled them on the rough ground. Kairi pushed herself up from her knees and spun around, raising her hands to punch anyone who might come out of it.

The only thing to show up was the dog that had led her there. As soon as the dog passed into the place they were in now, the portal closed as if it was never there.

"I'm okay..." She muttered to herself. "I'm okay."

A hand touched her elbow and Kairi spun around, raising her arms to ram her forearms onto the person who had touched her. The person was a girl around her own age with brunette hair and a floral orange shirt. Said girl looked startled by Kairi's reaction and Kairi felt a flash of guilt.

"I'm sorry." The girl apologized before Kairi could. Her apology prompted Kairi to look around and spot two others in the room. The others were two boys, one with light blond hair and the other with dark hair.

Kairi clasped her hand against her chest. "I should be saying sorry--I just...bounced in here without seeing who was here." Bounced was a weird way to put it but she wasn't exactly thinking much about it. She was too busy being worried that the red haired man would follow her here.

The brunette girl raised an apologetic hand. "Still, I shouldn't have touched you when you looked so tense."

She shook her head. "I shouldn't have tried to attack you, though." Kairi gave the room another look around, noting how it looking like an old storage room that hadn't been sued as such for a while. "Where is this?" She asked.

"Station underpass." The blond boy said slowly and suspiciously. He didn't seem like the type to trust easily. Understandable as she did just burst out of a dark portal on the wall.

Kairi let out a breath. "I meant--which station?" She remembered a snippet from her time in Sora's heart of Donald scolding Sora about protecting the world order. Which meant she couldn't just ask the world's name.

The chubby boy with dark hair spoke up now. "Twilight Town Center! Hi, I'm Pence." He introduced himself.

"Pence!" The blond boy scolded.

Pence shook his head. "I think we can trust her not to do something to hurt us, Hayner." Oh, was that the blond boy's name?

It seemed to be as said blond boy was having a momentary tantrum over Pence revealing his name. Meanwhile the brunette girl turned back to Kairi with a wry smile. "Boys, right? I'm Olette."

"Nice to meet you, Olette. I'm Kairi." She could feel herself relaxing from the adrenaline rush of meeting that strange red haired man.

Olette beamed. "Same, Kairi! So...what were you doing to end up coming out of our wall?" She tilted her head, looking bemused by that thought.

Kairi's good mood falter and she frowned. How to put it... "I was running away from someone who was trying to kidnap." She decided on saying. "I don't know what he wanted but...I don't think it was good."

"Seriously?" Pence's voice made the girls turn to the boy duo. It seemed like they had stopped arguing. "Do you think he can find you here?," He said.

That hadn't occurred to her, with the portal closed, but perhaps it should've. Kairi closed her eyes in thought. "...I don't think so. I used two different portals to get here and they both closed behind me, so I think he can't use those to follow me?" She looked down at the yellow furred dog she had trailed after.

The dog barked up at her happily.

"You sure you don't know why?" Hayner asked with narrowed eyes.

She kind of wished he'd be less suspicious. "I mean, I think I might know. It might have something to do with one of my friends but..." Kairi let out a huff of frustration.

Olette sat back on the couch and leaned forward with a frown. "Which friend do you think it might involve? And why would it be your friend?" She asked, patting the couch for Kairi to join her.

Kairi sat down and frowned as she leaned her chin on her hands. "I guess...Maybe it's because Sora has a tendency to piss off people who are trying to hurt others?" Seriously, Maleficent and her crew seemed to hate Sora for how quickly he tore apart all their plans.

"Wait, Sora?" Pence cried, sounding surprised. "Like, brown spiky hair and crown necklace Sora?"

Her mouth fell open. Kairi had no idea how to respond to that as she straightened up. "You've seen Sora?! Is he still here?!" She practically demanded, tempted to leap to her feet and go racing out to find him right then and there.

"Woah!" Hayner stepped in between her and the door, as if he guessed what she wanted to do. "He's not here right now, though he said he'd come by later. Don't go running off: It'd be better if you just stayed here until he does."

Kairi scowled: The idea of waiting, again, made her angry and queasy in turn. Angry, because she had left because she wanted to stop waiting so waiting at the first place she'd come across for him just...didn't seem right.

But if she left to go looking for him and missed him because of it...that just made her queasy.

She wanted to see him and Riku again. Kairi wanted her best friends back and she'd do just about anything for that. So maybe she'd wait, just for a couple of days. "...Maybe just for a few days," Kairi said quietly, "But where am I going to stay?"

Olette grinned at her. "I know exactly where you can stay."

* * *

Olette's place was nice. It wasn't as nice as her own home, but it was a mayor's mansion. Maybe not a mansion on the same level as some other places, but it was a mansion for Destiny Islands.

The first night she had spent half awake, somewhat terrified that the man who had chased her would appear in her room for no reason. Pluto, the yellow dog, was a comfort against that as he slept up on the bed with her.

Of course, after the second night, Olette had decided they should shop for new clothes. Kairi's current outfit scream islander, save for the ribbon in her hair. She had unconsciously touched it, remembering it had been from Aerith. 'It boosts magic and defense,' she had told Kairi after giving it to her.

It was actually fun to go shopping, though. It was almost like shopping with Selphie, except a little less frustrating. Kairi loved Selphie, but the girl's love of bright yellow clothes when they didn't look good at her was baffling at the best of times and terrible at the worst of times.

The white and pink dress they ended up picking out was nice, though Kairi insisted on buying some short black shorts to wear underneath. That way when she followed Sora out into his current journey she could fight without anyone from seeing up the skirt. Kairi kept the gifted ribbon up in a ponytail, along with her necklace.

It was a special necklace, after all.

Kairi thanked Olette for the new clothes, packing her own islander clothes aside after they got them washed that night. The next day she decided to try out some of the part time jobs they had available. It wasn't as if she could go to school here so working a job was the best thing she could do.

Besides, she really didn't like the idea of not paying Olette back for the clothing. Most of the jobs were easy but boring and left Kairi with barely enough to pay Olette back with. Olette insisted it was fine, but...well, like mentioned earlier, Kairi didn't like owing people munny or money.

It was on the fourth day that things seemed to change. It wasn't that different from the night Destiny Islands was destroyed. Because of that, Kairi felt like she was on edge all day and kept any of the potions she'd picked up from stores on her at all times. She even got another bracelet, an aegis chain, to post her magic.

She let out a breath as noon passed, adjusting posters she was carrying for her current part time job. It seemed like things were fine, she thought, even if my feelings made me think differently.

Kairi smiled wryly to herself. Sometimes her feelings made her do some dumb things. Maybe if she hadn't listened to them as strongly as she had on the islands, Riku wouldn't have turned to someone else for help. Maybe their world hadn't been destroyed at all.

Okay, she thought, enough of the self-doubt.

She was about to head out of the sandlot when, to her shock and dulled frustration, heartless crawled out of the shadows. There weren't an overwhelming about but it was enough that Kairi found herself dropping her posters and getting into a ready stance. She might have to just punch them but that better than just letting them hurt her.

The first one dove at her and slipped on the posters she had dropped. She grimaced as it flopped and the other four clambered over it towards her. Kairi swatted at the closest with her fist and winced as her fingers hit cool chilly darkness.

Kairi backed away. Darn it, what was she supposed to do if even her fists couldn't fight back? If she couldn't fight, how was she supposed to find Sora and Riku?

Her mouth twisted into an ugly frown as she continued to back away from the heartless. She hated feeling helpless she decided then as her back hit one of the walls of the sandlot. "Leave me alone." Kairi hissed at the heartless.

They wiggled antennae at her before they stopped, their heads lifting and looking around as if they sense something. Kairi frowned harder as they started skittering towards the opposite way, where Kairi had been heading towards originally.

Someone yelled and she jolted: That was Hayner. Hayner who was yelling as heartless came towards him.

Kairi found herself racing forward, kicking the first of the heartless nearest to her with her boots. Unlike her fist, which had done practically nothing, it sent the heartless flying. At the same time, Hayner rounded the corner, swinging his struggle bat into a couple of the heartless.

"Kairi!" Hayner yelped as he spotted her kicking heartless.

She huffed. "I'm a bit busy, Hayner." Kairi kicked another heartless away from the both of them.

Hayner waved his struggle bat around. "No, no, Kairi, he's here!!" He yelped again as a heartless jumped at him but swatted it down with the struggle bat.

Kairi paused and glanced over. What did that even mean? Who was this he was yelling about? "Later, Hayner! You can tell me later--" She let out a soft scream as a heartless jumped down at her from above.

How was she supposed to fight against attacks like from above?

"Watch out!" Another boy's voice yelled out and Kairi felt every part of her just stop at the sound of it. No way...was that truly who she thought it was? Would it really be as easy as getting into a fight with heartless?

As something slashed out a heartless above her, she spun around and saw a head of spiky brown hair. Kairi teared up immediately and threw her arms around him, ignoring all the stupid heartless around them. "Sora!" She yelled.

The boy beneath her arms went still and then, in a stunned voice, said, "Kairi?"

She nodded. Kairi could feel the cool metal of the keyblade's guard against her arm before it vanished with a soft shing. There was the sound of battle around them but Kairi couldn't bring herself to care this time, because this was Sora. One of her two best friends.

The only thing that'd make this better was if Riku was there too.

The sound of battle faded away until Kairi backed away from Sora, the battle over. "How are you here?" Sora asked, sounding awed. He kept looking her up and down, as if he couldn't believe she was in front of him.

Kairi couldn't believe he was in front of her too. "Someone tried to kidnap me on the islands." She confessed. "I found a way out before he could get me...Don't worry, the islands are okay!" She hoped. That guy seemed more interested in her than the islands so hopefully he wouldn't have done anything to them but...

Sora swiped at his eyes before grinning widely. "I'm so glad you're okay!" He declared. "I didn't...It feels like it's been forever, since I saw you last."

"Technically, it's been a year." She teased him, reaching forward to take Sora's hand in hers. Stars and Oceans, she was glad Sora was here now. She...didn't have to wait for him anywhere anymore.

He smiled back at her and opened his mouth to say something else when someone cleared their voice behind them. The duo jolted and flushed and looked at them. The person was Donald, who was tapping his foot with his arms crossed.

Whoops. "H-Hello!" Kairi smiled at them and tilted her head at them. Despite traveling with them a little bit, she wasn't quite knowledgeable of either of Sora's traveling companions. It made her a little wary of how they'll react to her.

"Gawrsh, it's nice to see you, Kairi!" Goofy chirped. "We haven't seen you since Traverse Town!" The captain paused and the muttered something that sounded like 'maybe that ain't right...'

She didn't know what that meant but she smiled regardless. "It's nice to see you as well, Goofy. And you too, Donald." Kairi grinned at the mage, who huffed and cross his arms. Despite the actions usually being dismissive, it just seemed fond here.

Sora hugged her again and pulled back with a delighted smile as Kairi huffed a laugh. "Are you going to keep hugging me, Sora?" She asked teasingly.

"Yes. I want to be sure you're really here," Sora said seriously, still smiling.

Oh. Kairi's smiled twisted with sorrow. "I know we promised you'd come back on your own with Riku but...I didn't like waiting." She breathed in and out. "I just wanted...I wanted to see you both again."

It had been so lonely without them.

Sora hugged her again. "Well, we're together now!! So...we can find Riku, stop the organization, and then go home." He beamed as he pulled away.

Kairi blinked. "Organization?"

Before Sora could respond, Hayner cleared his throat behind them. Whoops--she'd forgotten he was there. "Sorry, Hayner! Um..." Kairi gave him an apologetic look.

Hayner tried to look stern but ended up sighing and shaking his head. "It's fine. I--I'm gonna head back to the hang out. Come say bye before you leave, alright?" And then he was off, before she could respond.

Huh. Well that just happened? Kairi didn't really know how to feel about Hayner just running off like he had. Except she did know she felt a little bit hurt by his running off like he had. She had thought they were finally friends.

"Kairi?" Sora's voice shook her out of her thoughts.

She smiled at him. "I was thinking about something, sorry, Sora." Clearing her throat, Kairi said, "So. I'm going with you to find Riku, right?" Because he had to still be searching for Riku if Riku wasn't there.

Sora faltered, as if he remembered something unpleasant. "Kairi, I dunno...Maybe it's not a good idea after all. I...the Organization is really dangerous. They might've hurt Riku and Riku is--" Stronger than us both, was clearly there but left unsaid.

While she could understand his worry for her safety, it still rubbed her wrong. She'd been practicing her magic so she could go with them, not so she could be left behind somewhere else again. "I'm coming with you," Kairi said, "If they're as strong as you say, then we'd be better off together than split up!"

That seemed to leave Sora speechless. For a moment it seemed like he might argue but a wide bright smile crossed his face. "Yeah...yeah, you're right! Let's stick together! Right, Donald, Goofy?" HE glanced at the other two.

Goofy nodded eagerly and Donald huffed. "...You both got a point!" Donald grumbled. "If heartless attack while we're gone..."

...She wouldn't really have a defense, besides magic. Which, she realized, she hadn't used at all. Why in the world did she not use her magic on the heartless? Guess it must've been the shock, she supposed, though that was something she'd have to work through if she wanted to fight too.

"No matter what, we're stronger together. Right, Sora?" She teased, tempted to bring up how her heart had been with him his first journey. At the sight of his flush, she noted that he probably had a similar thought.

Kairi smiled at him fondly before she patted her knees. "Alright, so I'm coming with!" She declared, putting her hands on her hips as she grinned at Sora. "No takes backs."

Sora laughed and grinned at her. He nodded. "Right, no take backs! Let's go and find Riku and stop the Organization!"

The two teens cheered together and their guardian slash companions cheered with them. They had a goal set and Kairi wasn't going to have to stay behind again. Granted, she wasn't going to let him leave her behind but it was still good to have Sora agree.

* * *

None of them noticed a man in a black cloak watching them from above, blue hair just barely visible from inside the hood. He hmphed in veiled disappointment but let it go.

After all, he'd have plenty of chances to grab her another time.


	2. spacey paranoia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> beta`d by my gf, laura~ (@lailahwithagun)
> 
> this chapter is.....fairly large? it also only vaguely follows the visits to space paranoids so. [loud shrugs] it's an au anyway

Kairi leaned on an empty panel on the dashboard, peering out into the Other Sky. It was such a strange term to refer to the space gummi ships traveled through but it was one that Kairi had no trouble adopting. It fit, somehow, despite the strangeness of the wording.

"So, where to first?" She asked turning her back to the Other Sky. "You guys are the experts here."

Sora crossed his arms in thought. After a couple minutes of standing there in thought, he said, "I think....let's check out Hollow Bastion!" Sora pumped a fist. "You might remember something I don't from the last time we were there! Something that might help us find Riku!"

Donald tapped his feathered wings against the dashboard next to Kairi. "We might have bigger issues over there." Donald declared as a screen popped up. A SOS alert had been put out from Hollow Bastion at some point, apparently.

"Gawrsh, what's going on?" Goofy wondered as he stared at the SOS.

Sora leaned forward between her and Donald. "Guess we've got two things to do! Finding stuff to track Riku while helping Leon and the others out!!" He shot a grin at Kairi, looking proud of himself.

Kairi just grinned back, eager to get started. Finally she'd get to travel to other worlds without being unconscious for most of it. Pleased she bumped her shoulder against Sora's, who laughed.

The quartet broke up to the seat. Kairi was still impressed how quickly they got the fourth seat in, though both Donald and Goofy looked a little guilty about that. She'd...have to ask about that later because it didn't make much sense to her.

Once they were all seated soundly in their chairs with safety restraints in place, Sora took the wheel. "I'm...going to fly this time, okay Donald??" He glanced over his shoulder at the Mage before grinning at Kairi.

It was weird, but she just grinned back. Kairi trusted Sora to fly just fine.

* * *

She regretted that thought somewhat.

Half way through their four day flight, Donald had kicked Sora out of the pilot's chair. He had yelled about how bad Sora was at flying and--honestly, Sora really wasn't that great. Not that Kairi was going to say that to his face, when he looked so disappointed.

Instead, she comforted him with a 'you weren't that bad!' when they had a moment alone. He'd just looked at her with big blue eyes and said, "I wanted to impress you."

At least he admitted it. "You don't have to impress me, Sora. I'm just happy to be with you," Kairi said with a small smile.

Sora flushed but grinned at her. Judging by how large the smile was, Sora didn't quite believe her yet, but that was fine. Kairi would convince him that he didn't have to be some unreachable level of perfection to impress her.

Well, he didn't have to impress her at all. Yet she had a feeling he wouldn't believe her if she told him that either. Kairi would just have to convince him with her actions if her words wouldn't convince her.

Kairi ended up sitting down next to Sora and leaned her head on Sora's shoulder. She saw Sora flush out of the corner of her eyes and she smiled faintly. "Soo, want to show me so magic?" She asked. "I could use it if I'm going to fight with you guys."

"Oh!" Sora looked embarrassed for other reasons now. "Er, what magic do you know right now?"

She smiled and patted her knees. "Well, I know barrier. And cure. But that's all Aerith got to teach me before she left." Which made her feel somewhat useless, for all that barrier and cure was useful.

Sora laughed. "Better than Donald! He can't even use barrier yet." He pressed a hand to his mouth and said, "Don't let Donald know I said that, though." They shared a quiet laugh together before they lapsed into silence.

He seemed to be thinking about what magic to start her with and Kairi hummed and looked up towards the cockpit. She wasn't used to seeing Sora think so much--he usually just plunged into things without much thought. But then, things had changed.

Kairi had to work on catching up with Sora. Both in skill and just with how their individual lives had been.

She flicked her fingers at Sora. "You know, you're thinking almost as much as Riku does. Just...go with what feels right, Sora." Kairi told him.

"Oh." He flushed in embarrassment. "Right! Um...I think, fire is the best place to begin with, I think? That's where I start anyway!" Sparks of fire flickered around his fingers as to emphasize this point.

Nodding, Kairi said, "Sure. Let's get started with that then? We do have nearly three more days before we get to Hollow Bastion."

Sora ginned wide and hard. "Yeah, okay! Come on, I can show you in the bathroom. Uh, you know, in case we set something on fire." He laughed sheepishly and guiltily.

She raised an eyebrow but didn't question him as she followed him through the gummi ship. The bathroom in question wasn't a large one, so they were a little squashed together. Sora took one of her hands and held his other it. She watched as he summoned a small flame between their two hands.

"What...?" She stopped when Sora shook his head.

He said, "Can you feel the heat of the fire and the like?" When she nodded, he continued. "Okay, I need you to try and focus on that--but try and use magic instead. I guess....like when you try to make a shield? Except with fire and heat instead of the intent to shield. Does that make sense?"

Sora flustered at her stare. "W-What is it?" He asked as she pulled her hand back.

"Nothing!" She laughed softly. "I guess...I'm glad you've found something you're good at." Before, Sora had always been unhappy about 'not having he was good at' (though she would always argue against that--) so it was good, and nice, to see him so knowledgeable about something.

That just seemed to make him more flustered. "I-I have other things I'm proud of!" Sora huffed.

She looked up at him briefly before focusing on the feeling of fire. "Is that so...Do you want to share or...?" Kairi squinted unhappily at her hand. Why won't the sparks come? She could make barriers easily, why not fire?

"W-well..." Kairi noted that Sora seemed to be flushing deeply out of the corner of her eyes before she returned to trying to summon fire. Sora continued none the less. "You, and Riku too. Being friends with you both is something I'm proud of."

Kairi's head snapped up to look at him, surprised. Riku, she could understand, because what wasn't there to be proud of there? But her? She was, at this moment, basically a civilian. "Why me?" She asked, utterly bemused.

Sora gave her a confused look. "Why wouldn't I be proud of you?? I mean, you're..." He flushed. "You're pretty strong, Kairi."

She shook her head. "Not as strong as you or Riku." Kairi objected. She couldn't even fight like they did--though they were going to pick up something for her in Hollow Bastion.

"No way!" Sora was shaking his head, looking fierce. "Kairi, you're smart, and clever, and you notice stuff me and Riku don't. All that other stuff, like how to fight or use magic...that's stuff you can learn, Kai. You can't learn all the other stuff about you."

Without realizing it, she found herself wiping away her tears and cleared her throat. "Y-Yeah." She smiled at him and thought, _Well, not everything has changed about Sora either._

He's still just as kind and a good person as she remembered.

Kairi smiled and looked back down at their hands. "Well, I think I need to try and get this fire spell working." Being able to use fire as a defense would be nice, even without a weapon.

Sora nodded and leaned back. He seemed intent in waiting for Kairi to summon some sort of fire. Kairi pursed her lips as she glared at her hands. Fire, fire.....heat and smoke and burning. She can definitely do this. All she'd need to do is focus on the flames...

Something exploded by her ear and she squawked loudly, diving forward. Sora let out a loud 'ooph' as she collided with his stomach. Behind them, the shower curtain for the small shower was blazing with fire.

"Oh, nuts!" Sora yelped as he started casting frosty magic. Kairi slumped to the ground at his side, flustered as she watched him freeze the shower curtain. Well, at least she had cast the spell, right?

 _...Okay_ , she thought as she stared at the frosting curtain, _so maybe she needed to work on that._ At least she had a starting point to work from.

Sora was shaking next to her, stifling his laughter. "S-sorry!" He apologized as Kairi pinched his arm. "I just thought it was a little funny that you set the curtain on fire is all!"

"Are you going to tell me that you never set anything on fire when you were learning?" She shot back with a light pout. Yeah, fine, she wasn't great. But she just started, no one was perfect when they start something.

He elbowed her gently. "Maybe! But I'm not telling you." Sora grinned at her.

Someone cleared their throat behind them, by the door to the bathroom. "Gosh, I remember you set Donald's hat on fire once." Goofy's voice teased. "He was bad for a few days, after that."

Sora gasped. "Goofy, you traitor." The teenager pouted while Kairi giggled into her hand. Donald's hat had been a victim, huh?

Goofy peered at the shower and she flushed as he said, "Guess Kairi had an accident with the shower curtain, huh? Good thing we got some extras in the supplies!" He gave her a smile and she shyly smiled back.

"Wait, we do? Why?" Sora wondered.

Chuckling, Goofy said, "Donald got some after the hat fire. He was worried you'd get excited and try to practice somewhere on the ship so he got replacements for a lot of things!"

Sora huffed. "No faith in me, huh?" While the words seemed unhappy, the tone was fond.

Goofy smiled and turned to Kairi. "Come on, I'll show you the place where we keep the replacements, ahyuk!" He backed out of the bathroom.

"Okay! I'll see you later, Sora." Kairi patted his shoulder and rushed after Goofy. She jogged after him and thought: Well, at least they weren't mad, huh?

* * *

Kairi yawned as she leaned back against her chair. It was almost time for them to arrive at Hollow Bastion--and she hoped that they weren't too late to help with the SOS they had sent earlier. It had been days, after all.

Though, she did note that the SOS hadn't been taken back yet. She wondered what the issue was...Though she supposed that was why they were heading to Hollow Bastion in the first place. To find out why.

Either way, it would be a lie to say she wasn't at all excited. There were a lot of things she could do now, as she was no longer stuck on Destiny Islands. Don't get her wrong, she loved her home, but it wasn't as cozy without Sora and Riku there.

"Hey, Donald? Are we almost there?" Sora called out from down below. "Or are we still in the Other Ocean?"

Kairi looked up, question in her eyes as she looked to Goofy. "Other Ocean is the area we use to travel quickly while the Other Sky is the normal area between worlds." Goofy leaned over and whispered.

She blinked. Huh. Weird, she thought, that they had names like that. Kairi looked over as Donald groaned out loud. "Sora, I told you, we'll be there in a couple hours!" Donald grumbled.

There was a returning groan from Sora. Kairi stifled a laugh with Goofy as the other two started bickering. Kairi had been confused by the two having daily arguments and concerned on top of that. It turned out that was just how they showed their fondness for each other. Weird but--well, she supposed Donald was like a weird older brother slash dad for Sora right now.

She jolted as the ship rumbled. Donald cursed and grabbed the controls. Kairi heard Sora yelp from down below as Donald swerved out of the way. "What's happening?" Kairi called out as she latched onto her chair.

"Heartless ships!" Donald called back as he worked on steadying the ship. "Hold on tight!"

Kairi squawked as the dog fight began. Stars knew that these fights always made her motion sick. She made a face as she curled up on the seat and swayed with the ships twists and turns. Ah, the moment she touched down on solid ground would be too soon.

She grimaced as Sora flailed up form under the cockpit. "Whaaaat's going on!?" He yelped as he braced himself against the edges of the hole.

Goofy reached over and fastened Kairi's belt. "Sora, go and sit on the safety seat by the ladder, alright?," The knight captain said, "We're in the middle of a heartless fight."

Sora groaned but ducked down out of sight again. Kairi looked after him a little jealously: Her motion sickness might be better if she didn't have to watch Donald flail around will fighting these heartless.

Kairi closed her eyes as the ship rocked and they kept moving further through the battlefield of heartless. She wished she'd thought to grab some motion sickness tablets in Twilight Town before she left. Goodness knows she needed it.

Alright, all she needed to do now was focus on not being sick. Should be...easy enough, right? All she had to focus on was what it felt like to not be sick. That could work.

Hopefully.

She squeezed her eyes shut tight as the shop rocked once more. This was fine, she was fine. They were not being attacked... She chanted this to herself, intent on convincing herself it was true. 

The next hours was spent fighting their way to Hollow Bastion, blasting through waves and waves of heartless. They pushed the engines of the gummi ship to its max: They'd have to stay on Hollow Bastion for a few days while it auto repaired the damage and strain.

Kairi opened her eyes as the sounds of gunfire faded away. The gummi ship's engines hummed and she peered at Donald as he twisted the handles.

The ship rumbled and shook as it turned away from a cluster of comets. As he did so, the transition from the Ocean to the Sky was quick and Donald let out a sigh. "We're through," He said.

She peered around his chair. "Are we there, then?" Kairi asked as she peered through the helm's window. The horizon was colorful and she could see an orb of a World somewhere ahead of them.

Donald cleared his throat and nodded. "Yeah, we're here." He led the gummi ship to the area above Hollow Bastion. Kairi let out a sigh of relief as the ship tethered itself to the world below them.

"Can I get up from the chair now?" Sora's voice called up from below.

Kairi giggled before unbuckling herself and going down below. Sora was pouting in a seat attached to a wall, looking as if it had folded out from said wall. He perked up at the sight of her and she smiled back. It was time to get off this ship.

* * *

Kairi rubbed her arms, feeling chilled. It wasn't as if Hollow Bastion was cold--none of the others were shivering like her. It probably had more to do with the feeling of darkness prickling against her skin. Oceans, she hated having such a sensitive reaction to darkness. It made her life feel way more terrible than it needed to be.

Granted, that might just be her princess of heart...ness reacting badly to the darkness. Maybe if she was lucky, she'd be able to run into one of the other princesses. They could help her get this nonsense under control.

(She especially needed to do so, before they found Riku. She didn't want it acting up.)

Tugging her hair lightly, Kairi glanced up towards where Sora was haggling with one of the duck triplets. He was trying to get her a weapon--anything she could use to defend herself. She hoped he didn't spend too much on her.

Donald and Goofy were already poking around town, searching for the source of the SOS signal. She hoped they'd come back for her and Sora before confronting it themselves.

"Kairi?" She blinked and realized she had spaced out. Spaced out, because there was Sora, holding what seemed to be a long staff in his hands. "You okay?" He asked.

She smiled at him. "Yeah, I'm alright. What's that?" Kairi pointed at the staff in Sora's hand. It was primarily a pale purple, a glittering gem at the top. There were some stripes of a lighter purple color along the staff.

He held it out to her. "It's for you!" Sora beamed at her.

Taking the staff, Kairi shifted it around her hands, trying to find a good grip for it. It was surprisingly easy to keep a hold on the staff and she grinned. Yeah, she could probably fight with this.

Kairi hefted it up with a grin. "Alright, I'm ready!" She declared, grinning at him.

Sora laughed. "Awesome! Come on, let's go catch up with Donald and Goofy--Maybe they found something?" He smiled at her before turning and jogging in the general direction Donald and Goofy had gone.

Following him wasn't hard--granted, that was probably partially due to the fact that the boy wasn't trying hard to lose her. Kairi hummed to herself as they walked. She didn't expect him to do that, if she was honest. Try to lose her, that is.

Of course, the world was pretty calm and peaceful for a world that had sent a SOS.

Kairi tucked her hair behind her ear as she jogged to catch up with Sora. The brunet had caught up to Donald and Goofy. The latter was explaining that there wasn't anything happening around town, as far as they could tell. Which meant the SOS was...a false alarm??

She frowned. It sounded like Leon, Aerith, and the others were living here. If anyone has access to a SOS that connected across worlds, then it would be them. And they wouldn't just do a false alarm like that and for so long.

"Where's Leon and everyone?" Kairi asked, stepping up next to Sora.

Goofy looked up and beamed at her long staff. "That looks nice, Kairi!" He complimented her. Donald bumped his fist against Goofy's elbow and the knight let out a soft ow. "Oh, right! Leon and the others are at Merlin's house, I think??" He pointed to the only house with a fancy tower attached to it.

Kairi hadn't really known Merlin at all, but somehow that felt like a place Merlin would live. She turned to Sora. "Shouldn't we talk to them?? I mean, they're the only ones who could have a SOS thing right??"

"Not the only ones--but the only ones here, yeah." Sora jogged on ahead.

They stopped at the entrance to the building and Kairi peered up. It looked like there was a fire inside, as smoke drifted away into the sky. Sora didn't knock before opening the door to the building.

Kairi trailed after on his heels and poked him in the small of his back. "Rude, not knocking like that." She muttered into his ear.

Sora's ears turned a light shade of pink. "They don't mind." He hissed back. At the same moment, a blur of black and white tackled him.

"Sora!!" The blur yelled. "You're here!! So's Donald, and Goofy, and--"

The blur stopped, looked at her, and let Sora go. "Holy crap! Kairi, no way, is that you?" The blur, a certain ninja girl called Yuffie, asked, her expression lighting up.

Kairi smiled. Yuffie had changed a lot since she'd last seen the older girl. "It's nice to see you too, Yuffie." She greeted her.

Yuffie flung her arms around Kairi's shoulders. "Omigosh, this is awesome! I didn't know when I'd get to see you again! How have things been??"

"I’m good! I almost got kidnapped, but I was able to meet back up with Sora, so it's fine." Kairi flipped her free hand. After all, the guy might've freaked her out but she could leave with it if she could meet up with Sora.

Her flippancy earned her a bemused look from the ninja. Yuffie said, "I don't think you should be so calm about that, but alright, if you say so, Kairi."

Sora bumped his shoulder against Kairi's. "It's okay! We caught up to each other before anything got too bad." Kairi shot him a smile: If anyone could reassure them it was Sora.

Yuffie narrowed her eyes before letting out a soft huff. "Alright, fine, you win." She shook her head, her hands on her hips.

"Yuffie." She paused and backed away as a taller brunet man approached them. "Sora, Donald, Goofy, Kairi. Good to see you."

Giving him an enthusiastic wave, Sora said, "Hey, Leon! Is everything okay here? I mean. We got a SOS alert from Twilight Town." He glanced at Yuffie as he said this, hoping she might have an answer if Leon didn't.

Leon sighed. "So you did pick that up," Leon said, "You remember the claymore? It's been glitching out."

Cid stomped out of the shadows to punctuate Leon's statement, looking like he was gonna spit nails. He banged his fists on a table next to the computer set up in the house. "More like it's gone rogue, considering it’s attacking us instead of the heartless!" Cid snapped.

She frowned. "You can't fix it?" Kairi asked.

"I offered to help, but he keeps refusing!" Merlin popped into existence almost right on top of Leon. Leon jolted away with a scowl.

Cid glowered at Merlin. "What do ya think I am?? An idiot?? Of course I'm telling you no! Last time you helped with this, you made my computer explode!" He spun on his chair and grumbled, tapping furiously at the keyboard.

Merlin's expression turned stormy and the two started yelling at each other. Yuffie and Leon glowered at each other, expressions clearly yelling 'not this crap again.' It seemed the two had been arguing a lot lately.

Kairi cleared her throat. "Is there anything we can do to help?" She asked, fiddling with her staff.

"Well, there is a way that we might be able to fix it--but it requires us to find Ansem's secret labs," Leon said, arms crossed.

Oh boy. Finding those would be hard--because Kairi knew they existed. Not because they were mentioned in the reports Sora had gathered and Kairi had read but because she remembered. Somehow, she just remembered it existed--despite the fact that she remembered nothing else.

Having amnesia was incredibly annoying.

"Why do we need to find the labs?" Kairi asked. "And where do we start?"

Leon turned to her. "We have to go back to the Castle--Aerith is there, waiting for me and Yuffie." He paused, glancing out towards the horizon. "...I'll tell you one the way." He grimaced as if admitting to something he was ashamed of.

She exchanged a look with Sora. What could've possibly happened? Leon did have some weird hang ups--She wondered what hang up they'd hit this time.

The quartet trailed after Leon as they headed out of Merlin's house. The path to an overlook was empty of both civilians and heartless. It made Kairi uneasy--if there were such issues with the city defense system, then why weren't they attacking in droves? And that wasn't even taking into account the nobodies.

Kairi clenched her hands on her staff. She said, "So, why aren't there any heartless?"

"That's part of the problem." Leon glanced over his shoulder at her. "For some reason, despite the Claymore's issues, we haven't gotten any heartless attacks." He scowled out towards the massive canyon the overlook displayed.

Sora crossed his arms as he stopped by the opposite entrance to the overlook. "That's really weird," He said, "Heartless always go after hearts. They usually only don't when...when someone tells them not to." Sora winced as if he had just had a thought.

She wondered if it was the same thought as her: That someone was in charge of the heartless and had ordered them not to attack. Not yet.

No wonder Leon was so paranoid right now.

"Alright, so why do you think the source of the Claymore's problems are in Ansem's secret labs?" Donald asked, crossing his arms in front of him.

Leon grimaced. That didn't look good. "There's some sort of signal coming from there that's causing it. We'd follow the signal to its source but unfortunately, we can only tell that is somewhere in the castle." Which explained why they were searching that place.

And yet... "Why do you think Ansem's labs are there?" Kairi asked. Seemed strange to her to assume the signal was coming from Ansem's secret labs when it could just be some sort of jammer hidden in a corner of a room somewhere.

"Whatever it is, Cid insists that it needs a computer to work. Ansem's public lab--those that people know of--are too badly damaged: The computers there don't work anymore. That leaves his secret labs." Leon explained, making a displeased face.

Okay, that actually made perfect sense. Process of elimination worked wonders on what to do next. Kairi peered past Leon's shoulder as the taller man led the way down the stairs away from the overlook and into some back alley. Leon unlocked the gate and they stepped through into the alley.

Pipes led the way down towards the castle. Or up? Kairi wasn't sure as she ducked into the alley. The pipes hummed as something traveled down them and Kairi made a face. How strange. What could be traveling down them, she wondered.

The quartet trailed after Leon until they made it to a courtyard. Pipes led up and around all over the place, though some of them were cracked. Nothing leaked out of those ones. Aerith was standing in the courtyard, half turned away from them.

She turned to them as the group approached them. "Leon!" Aerith greeted them. "Sora, everyone. It's good to see you all."

"Anything change over here?" Leon asked, crossing his arms.

Aerith shook her head. She glanced towards the opposite end of the courtyard, which led down towards the castle. "Nothing has cropped up here. I was about to start going towards the castle..." She trailed off as Leon have her a stern look.

He said, "Why would you do that? It's dangerous to head into unknown territory--and that's not even taking into account the heartless."

She shook her head. "We need to go there eventually," Aerith said shortly, her hands clasped in front of her.

Sora waved hand. "Well, we're here now! So let's head into the castle!" Sora looked almost excited about heading into the castle: Kairi was less excited. A castle...It just reminded her of when she had lost her friends to darkness, even if only briefly.

Kairi internally shook those thoughts from her mind. Sora and Riku were both fine, now. Or--well, at least she was sure Sora was fine. Riku might not be fine, just yet, but Kairi knew he would be. After all, she and Sora were going to find him and help him if he wasn’t.

She started as Goofy touched her elbow. Oh, they were moving into the castle now, huh? Kairi clasped her hands on her staff, so tight her hands ached with it. Every step closed to the castle made her more and more anxious.

Her legs stopped moving when they entered the hallway. No one noticed until they reached the end of it and Donald squawked. "Gawrsh, Kairi, what're you doing down there?" Goofy called back as Sora hurried back, frowning in confusion at her.

"Kairi, what's wrong?" Sora asked, reaching for her hands.

Wincing at the movement, Kairi felt guilt. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea for her after all? This entire place just made her feel...small. Like she was a child running away from the dark.

Sora's hand touched hers. Her hands were pink from being so tightly clenched against her staff. She looked up at him and forced a smile. "Sorry. I just feel...unnerved." This place...it summoned up old fears for her.

He clasped her hands with his. "Hey, keep close? We can stay together while going through these hallways." Sora beamed at her and she found herself smiling back.

Yeah, Sora was always the best at helping her relax.

(Riku usually was the one who could make sure she never felt like she needed to relax, if she was honest, though. Until that summer before they lost their world--)

Kairi sighed softly. "Yeah, I will." She took Sora's hand and the brunet flushed with a pleased smile. Aw, what a dork. Sora was so adorable.

The thoughts about Sora's adorability kept her fear of the hallways at bay. Holding Sora's hand helped too, as if it was an anchor to keep her steady in an ocean of terror. Or maybe Sora was just a safe harbor?

She smiled to herself. Yeah, Sora was probably more of the harbor while--Riku. Riku had been their anchor.

Stars and Oceans, she missed Riku.

"Hey, what's that?" Donald called out, gesturing down a hallway. Kairi looked up and followed Donald's gaze down the hall. At the end was a door that was open slightly. For a moment, Kairi thought darkness was spilling out of it--but it was just the shadows from the room beyond.

Kairi let go of Sora's hand. "I haven't seen it before," Leon said as he stepped pass them.

Aerith hastened after him. Kairi spotted a worried look on her face as she caught up to Leon. "Wait for us, Leon." She murmured softly.

Leon let out a breath and nodded once. "Right. Sorry." He glanced around, rubbing the back of his neck briefly. Okay, yeah, Leon was definitely a shy guy. Kairi smiled to herself, pressing a hand to her mouth.

She paused as she realized that Sora had led her into the office. Kairi looked around the room, with a light hum. It looked...familiar. "Is this Ansem's office?" She wondered out loud.

The older members of the group exchanged looks as she and Sora moved further into the office. On the wall was a massive portrait of Ansem himself. Kairi stared up at it and thought, _this is the man who caused her to end up on Destiny Island._

...How funny. Kairi thought she'd feel angry about it. Instead, she actually felt grateful. There was a guilty tone to it, because Ansem had destroyed hundreds if not thousands of lives.

She glanced at Sora. He had gotten closed to the portrait, frowning up at it with a deep frown. "This is Ansem." Sora muttered to himself.

"What an ego maniac!" Donald grumbled. "Having a portrait of himself in his own dang office."

Aerith stepped inside the office, frowning delicately. "That's the strange thing, though. In public he was kind and gentle--he showed affection to that young boy one of his apprentices had adopted. Everyone talked about how good a person he was." She looked at the portrait, clearly troubled.

Leon snorted. "He was a good liar, though. Or maybe he wasn't a liar--it was just that messing with hearts proved to be more important to him than other people." He turned away from the portrait and started going through one of the shelves of books.

Kairi watched him before turning to Aerith. "So what do we need to look for?" She asked.

Humming to herself, Aerith tapped a finger to her lips. "A secret passage--so we need the mechanism for it." Which could honestly be anywhere.

Sora's face lit up. "We could try the books!" He hurried over to Leon's side. "In the other Castle, there were secret passages you could open if you put the books in the right places. Maybe that's like that here??"

He and Leon started investigating the shelves and Kairi turned to Donald. "Do you want to help me check the walls?" She asked him.

Donald nodded in agreement and the two of them started searching the walls. While they were doing that, Goofy and Aerith set about to pull things off the walls; including the portrait. Kairi was tempted to help them get it off, but she kept back.

Getting in the way wouldn't help them, even if the portrait staring at her made her nervous. She pursed her lips and started banging her knuckles against the walls again. One of her knocks was met with the faintest of hollow sounds--it reminded her of a coconut from the north side of their islands.

"I think I might've found something?" Kairi called out, placed her hands flat against the wall. Maybe...all she had to do was find the button to open it, right? Her fingers sought out some sort of indent that might open this hollow.

Even if it was just a closet, it could still give them a hint on where to look next.

Aerith was next to her, she noticed, also seeking out something on the walls. Donald weaved expertly between their legs, seeking something at the lower part of the wall. Kairi doubt it would be there, but perhaps it was down there, because of that doubt. Easier to hide something somewhere you didn't think it'd be in, right?

Behind them, she heard something thump against the ground, yet she ignored it for the moment. They needed to open up the passage first--then she could wonder about what they were doing behind her. Probably moving stuff around the office, she thought.

"Kairi, move back." Aerith suddenly declared, one hand on her shoulder as the older woman placed her hand on indent on the wall. "I think I found the switch."

Pulling herself back and under Aerith's hand and arm, Kairi watched as Aerith put weight on the switch. There was a clicking sound and the wall slid open. The hallway beyond was empty as it turn a corner to...something. Maybe it led to the lab they were looking for.

Kairi jolted as Sora peered around her shoulder into the hallway. "Does that lead into the lab?" He asked, peering back towards the walls behind them. She followed his gaze and spotted some writing on the wall. Something about...D T D?

"Let's go." Leon declared, passing onwards into the hallway. "We need to take the signal down now."

He disappeared around the corner. Kairi followed on his heels. Judging by the four sets of footsteps, all of them distinct from each other, the others were following them into the hallway and...to a light? She passed as she stepped onto a balcony.

She stopped and leaned over the rails, staring out towards the lab it overlooked. It was...massive would be understating how large the lab was. Kairi couldn't even see the far wall. Whether that was because of the low light in the lab or not, though, Kairi couldn't tell. What she was more concerned about was the pods lined up in columns and rows along the walls.

There had to be hundreds of them and the sight of them made Kairi clutch her stomach. Something about all of this filled Kairi with dread, perhaps even worse than when she had entered the castle earlier. What was this place even for?

Aerith placed a hand on Kairi's shoulder. "Kairi, are you well?" She asked, tilting her gaze down to meet Kairi's. "You've been rather jumpy since we came into the castle. Is there something...wrong?"

"I don't know." Kairi tore her gaze from Aerith's. "This place just.... reminds me of something I can't remember." A something that from before her arrival on Destiny Islands.

Kairi pursed her lips. If this place did have something to do with how she had ended up on the islands, then perhaps there was an answer here. An answer to why she had ended up on the islands, if there was even an answer. It'd be here, right?

She shook her head and pulled away from the railing. Think...about that later. Kairi turned to the doorway into a computer room. She peered in before stepping into the room. Sora and Leon were both leaning over the computer, with Donald and Goofy hovering nearby.

Raising an eyebrow, Kairi stepped up next to the two at the computer itself. "Are...you two okay?" She asked, noting the frustrated look on both of their faces.

"Leon won't let me make a search for Riku!" Sora declared, slapping the palm of his hand against the keyboard. 

Leon gave Sora a flat look. "There will be time for that after we turn off the signal or program screwing with the Claymore!" They glared at each other as Leon slammed a fist into the keyboard.

Kairi rolled her eyes. "Sora, he has a point. People will be, right now, in danger because of the problems with the Claymore. Plus, the sooner we get the Claymore fixed, the longer we can do a search for Riku." She gave the keyboard a flat look. "Also, can you stop slapping the keyboard?" What if they broke it?

Sora pouted at her as Leon triumphantly took over the keyboard. "But...Kairi...Riku...." His put turned into a true frown of melancholy.

"...Riku is waiting for us, Sora. He's safe, wherever he is right now. Have a little faith in him?" Even if Kairi actually desperately wanted to get Riku back, wherever he was.

His shoulders slumped. "I...are you sure, Kairi?" Sora asked, ducking his head. Leon slipped past him to start poking at the keyboard.

Kairi took one of Sora's hands in hers. "Yes. Riku is strong. I know, wherever he is, he'll be safe until we can find him again." She wasn't just convincing Sora here. Here, she was trying to reassure herself too. After all, how could she justify not searching for Riku this instance if he wasn't okay?

(She wished they knew where to even start.)

The two jolted as angry beeping came from the computer terminal Leon was leaning over. "What's going on?!" Donald demanded, squeezing up next to the man.

Leon shook his head. "I don’t--It looks like there was too many unauthorized inputs." Whatever that actually meant, Kairi didn't know. He continued. "It’s...activating some sort of security protocol?"

Goofy and Kairi exchanged looks. Would it drop heartless on them? Judging by the lab, she wouldn't be surprised. What did surprise her, however, was Aerith darting forward and pulling Leon back from the terminal. "The wall!" Aerith called out, pointing a free hand at the wall opposite the terminal.

Kairi turned around to look the same moment she felt some sort of static shock. It was followed by what felt like ice sliding down her spine before darkness fell over her like a warm blanket.

* * *

She flailed her arms as she stumbled back into awareness. Kairi rammed into a glowing blue wall and grimaced as she pushed back from the wall with her hands. The wall felt strange against her hands, like sparks against water. This was not the lab she had just been.

Looking around the room, she noticed that the blue glow extended to the rest of the room, with circuit board lines tracing their way this way and that way all over the floors and walls. She looked down at her hands and realized that her hands were also blue and glowing: That her entire body was.

Her pink dress was now primarily white with blue lines tracing their way down her sides. Black accented the white and blue along the edges of her dress and she eyed the gloves on her hands. Like her dress, they were white with circuit board blue lines all along the sides and her fingers.

Tapping the tip of her similarly designed books, Kairi gave the room another look over. There was a door at the end of a short hallway and opposite that hallway was a large window set against the wall. The window itself overlooked a massive arena of sorts, where it seemed motorcycles with light coming from them stretched out behind said motorcycles.

She paused as she noticed a strange box set against the wall by the hallway. Kairi leaned over it, wondering if inside there was a way to open the door inside. Humming to herself, Kairi tugged at the sides of the box until she finally managed to split the box's lid from the rest of the box.

Inside, an older woman was led out inside. She wore similarly white clothes and Kairi knelt down next to the box. Was she asleep? "Hello?" She asked, gently shaking the woman's shoulder. Maybe she was the way to open the door, or at least help to reach that goal.

The woman shuddered and tilted her head up from the box. She slowly blinked in confusion up at Kairi. "Who are you?" The woman asked, sounding entirely baffled by Kairi's presence.

"I'm Kairi." She replied. "Why are you in a box?"

Shifting to stand up, the woman looked around. "I was...helping Tron earlier." She clasped a hand to her chest in thought. "We were caught and--I suppose we were put into different cells."

Standing up from the box, the woman slowly stepped out of the box. She peered around the room as Kairi had before turning back to Kairi. "Not to be rude--but what type of program are you? If you're a security program...." She trailed off as Kairi's baffled look.

Which, well, why wouldn't she be baffled? Kair wasn't a...program, whatever that might entail. She was just Kairi. "I'm...not a program?," She said.

"Oh. Oh!" The woman gave her a look of honest surprise. "You're a User."

What... is that? Some sort of title? "What's a user?" Kairi asked.

The woman leaned her hands on a terminal Kairi hadn't noticed before. "Users, like yourself, have access to things in the system that only the MCP can currently access. Programs like me, can only access things that we are designed to."

Designed? That seemed a weird way of saying born but Kairi wouldn't ask. "Okay... Then, is it rude to ask what type of program you are...?" Kairi asked.

"I oversee the transfer of data via the solar sailor. Or--At least that was what I used to do before." She paused. "I am designated as Yori."

Her name was Yori. Kairi was glad to know the older woman's name now. "It's no wonder you were brought to a cell." Yori murmured aloud. "If the MCP digitized you, they would've dropped you here with no hesitation." She seemed disturbed by something, however.

Kairi sighed. "That's...great and all, but I could really get out of here? I think my friends got stuck here too." They had been next to her when that light hit them. Where would they be though? Another cell, maybe?

Yori hummed to herself. "Knowing the MCP, they were likely locked in a cell below or above us."

"Why above or below?" Kairi asked.

The older woman turned to the terminal and poked at it. "It's much harder to break through the cell data between cells if they are stacked upon one another." She frowned at the terminal as if it had told her something she didn't like.

"Can we break through the door's data then?" Kairi asked.

She shook her head in response. "If I was a security program, perhaps. But I...only know how to read and transfer data. If the door was damaged, so I could reach within, I might be able to..." She laid her hands on either side of the terminal's keyboard.

Kairi pursed her lips as she turned to the door. Maybe...maybe she could break it down, if being a User was so great? Raising her hand she called on the staff Sora had gotten for her and then 'registered' to his keyblade.

While there were other spells like thunder and blizzard, Kairi only knew how to summon fire. Even her fire spells were terrible, but....if she could damage the door so that Yori could access the data, it wouldn't matter how bad her fire spells were.

"Okay, I can do this." She muttered out loud, shifting into what she hoped was a good stance. Kairi aimed her staff at the door and focused on the feeling of burning, the smell of smoke, and the sound of sizzling wood of a bonfire. "Burn!" She yelled, furiously jabbing the tip of her long staff at the door.

The fire impacted across the blue door. The surface of the door seemed to ripple from the impact and Kairi narrowed her eyes. The door wasn't damaged by her attack: There wasn't even a scorch across the door.

She puffed her cheeks out in frustration. A hand clasped against her shoulder, and Kairi jerked sharply. Yori tilted her head at her. "What was that?" She asked.

Kairi sighed. "It was supposed to be a fireball that would break the door." She paused. "It didn't work."

Yori tilted her head. "You Users...You really do have some amazing abilities, huh?" The older woman hummed to herself.

Nodding at Yori, Kairi narrowed her eyes at the door. She remembered that Sora has said that the way to use magic was to tie it to a feeling. For fire, it was the feeling of burning. Presumably, blizzard and thunder would be the feeling of cold and static right?

She closed her eyes and thought of the feelings of each. Cold didn't work well enough because she couldn't...feel it. Not like she could feel the burning through her fingers and arms. But the static...

That feeling, she had felt tingling through her arms just earlier. That feeling...it would work with thunder right?

"Yori," Kairi said, "Please stand back."

Startled, Yori stepped back. Kairi took a long deep breath and shifted her stance again. Aim the staff to the door, think and feel that static through your body, and then fire then lightning--!

Something snapped and crackled in her ears and Kairi's eyes snapped open. The door was not shattered, but Yori was suddenly rushing past her. Kairi jolted as Yori pressed her hands against the door. Blue circuitry expanded from Yori's hand across the door.

Kairi tilted her head at the door and Yori. "What's going on?" She asked.

Glancing back at Kairi, Yori said, "That thing you did, with the electricity? It short circuited the security defense coding on the door." There was a clicking sound as the door slid open under Yori's hands.

"How did you know?" Kairi asked, jogging up next to Yori. And why electricity? That had been the spell Thunder, not the spell 'electricity'.

Yori shook her head. "I wasn't sure. Not until I put my hand on the door. But this makes it easier to get the door open without destroying it entirely."

She supposed that made enough sense. Different worlds had different rules, after all. Yori raised her hand and gestured forward. She snuck forward and Kairi ducked down next to the older woman.

Like Yori had mentioned, there were no doors to either side of the platforms they'd stepped out onto. In fact, there was only empty space on either side, tall with a void down below them. Kairi took a moment to peer down into the void.

Kairi wondered where Sora, Donald, and Goofy were and swallowed her worry.

She needed to have faith in Sora, just as she had told him to have faith in Riku. Sora can defend himself--and besides, he had the keyblade. If he was in a cell, which he no doubt was, he could just unlock it.

"Here we go." Yori muttered next to her.

What was she talking about? Kairi turned her gaze to where Yori was looking and noticed a moving platform. Oh, that was what she was talking about. It was move up towards them and Yori stood up. Kairi made a soft noise of confusion as Yori shifted her stance. What was she doing?

Yori jumped forward and landed on the platform. Wincing with a gasp, Kairi shifted until she dove forward and followed Yori down. It wasn't really that far down below but Kairi's knees still protested as she landed heavily on the metal of the platform.

"Ow." She mumbled as Yori helped her up to her feet. Kairi looked up at Yori. "Where to now?"

That seemed to be Yori's question too. "I'm not sure. I don't which safe houses have been exposed or who else might've been grabbed. If Tron was here he could find out." Her mouth was twisted with an unhappy frown.

Tron...Yori mentioned him quite a lot. Kairi closed her eyes and nodded once to herself. "Yori, I know Tron could find out. I know he's a security program and could do a lot of stuff." Not really, but for now... "But he's not here. Stop beating yourself up about it when you could be doing something."

Okay, that was harsh. Kairi winced at her own words but, somehow, Yori seemed to take it as encouragement.

She nodded seriously. "I'm sorry, Kairi. You're right. I need...to focus on what's happening right now and not on what could be." Yori stepped pass Kairi, her expression serious with every step.

Kairi watched Yori's back before jogging after her. At least Yori wasn't insulted by her comments.

* * *

Squinting at a wall, Kairi was pretty sure they were lost. This wall was one she would absolutely swear she had seen before--but she didn't feel like mentioning that to Yori. Especially as Yori looked like she wanted to murder something.

It made Kairi wonder, though: How had they not passed Sora? He and the others should've, realistically, passed them by. She sighed and wished, not for the first time, that she had something to communicate with them.

Kairi shook her head and said, "Yori? Do you know where we're going?"

Her voice made Yori pause. The older woman seemed to be thinking, her face turned away from Kairi. Eventually, Yori turned to Kairi and said, "I'm trying to check the way information through the connections of the walls...but it seems they're set to cycle after a specific point." She frowned.

She looked away as Kairi tilted her head in thought. "Why could we stop at the point the information starts cycling and figure out a way from there?" Kairi suggested.

Yori brought a hand to her chin with a hum. "That...may work. Come, let's fine the cycle point, then." She led Kairi back down the hall until they reached a three way split in the road. One choice was to go forward...and the other down into a dead end hallway.

Passing Kairi, Yori stopped at the wall. "The cycle starts here." She declared, placing her hands on one side of the wall.

Kairi frowned and stepped up next to Yori. The older woman began studying the data that Kairi couldn't see in the walls. She could follow her example yet she already knew it would prove fruitless. Turning to the wall that was the dead end, Kairi placed her left hand on it.

She frowned.

This...didn't feel like a wall. It felt almost ripple-y, like the surface of water. Kairi looked down at her staff before switching hands and placing her right hand on the surface of the wall. Maybe...It'd hurt if she was wrong, but if she was right? Well, she wouldn't hurt at all.

Swinging her fist back, Kairi took a deep breath before swinging with all her strength. Her fist hit the wall--and then went straight through, like she was punching through water.

Granted, she didn't get wet of course. Yet that was what it continually reminded Kairi of.

"User Kairi? What did you do?" Yori had turned around to look at her after hearing Kairi's fist hit the wall. "Your arm..."

Kairi smiled slightly. "I'm fine. Yori, can you check the data in this wall? I don't think it's a real wall, like the other walls are." Which was kind of obvious with her arm halfway through it.

She blinked. If she got her arm through it....the rest of her probably could get through it too, right?

Just as Kairi made to step through it, Yori raised her hands. A glowing square appeared in front of her and her finger rapidly flicked down the letters and numbers that had appeared in the square. Kairi pulled her gaze away from the square. No time to try and figure out what the square was saying.

What it was time to do, was to try and see if she couldn't push through the wall.  Kairi slipped the rest of her arm through the wall. Getting the rest of her body through was a bit harder as there was some resistance from the wall. But when she finally stumbled through, she had to be thankful. She was finally free of that labyrinth.

Turning around, Kairi waited for Yori to come through. After what felt like an eternity and her worry for Yori's safety mounting, the older woman stepped through. She judged by the lack of stumble that Yori dealt with less resistance than her.

"Oh, I know this place." Yori noted. "This is Canyon: There's another set of Pit Cells here..." She pursed her lips in thought.

Kairi let her. It's not like Kairi could really add to any thoughts to Yori's own train of thoughts. Instead, she edged away, peering into a large circular room to the left of the wall. There was a structure in the center with what seemed to be boxes inserted in the tops. What really drew her attention, though, was the person puttering around at the bottom, seemingly worried.

Who was that? "Kairi, what are you...?" Yori popped up at her elbow, surprising the teenager. Kairi clutched her chest with a soft gasp. Before she could respond, Yori's gaze had zero`d on the figure. "Tron!" She called out; hurrying passed Kairi towards the man.

This was Tron, huh. Kairi watched as the man called Tron turned and gasped Yori's name. The two reached forward towards each other, grabbing their hands together. They spoke rapidly, no doubt making sure the other was safe and well.

It reminded Kairi of just earlier that week, of her and Sora.

"I don't want to interrupt," Kairi said, quietly, "Can I... ask you a question?" Or another one, as it were.

Tron pulled away from Yori, briefly gave her a look of concern that she answered with a smile and nod, and said, "What query do you need answered?"

Kairi felt herself smile faintly: Programs were so strange, she thought fondly. "I was wondering you saw a couple of people around here? Um, a boy my age with spiky hair and two others: Their names are Sora, Donald, and Goofy?" She felt herself nervously tug on the tip of her ponytail.

His eyes went wide in surprise. "Are you User Kairi?" He asked.

She jolted with surprise and some delight: He had seen Sora! That was the only way he could know her name right? "Yes, that's me! Have you seen Sora then?" She asked, eager now.

"Yes, I have met User Sora. He was very upset but we had to have him leave to get the password to the database. We have no other way to get to the data that shows where the disruption signal is coming from." Tron explained. It seemed Sora had asked him to explain why he had left Kairi behind.

At last it wasn't because she'd 'get in the way' this time. No, she will not let that go, alright?

Kairi smiled and said, "It’s okay. So we don't know where the signal is coming from yet...?" She glanced back and forth between the two.

Tron shook his head. "My program abilities does not include being able to see the way data transfer." He glanced at Yori. "Now Yori...If I had known where you were, I would've asked for your help. Your abilities are beyond useful for this."

Beside them, Yori flushed and tucked her chin against her chest. "Oh, I don't know about that." She murmured.

He looked like he wanted to argue but Kairi raised her hand. "Sorry! I know I'm interrupting again, but do we still need the password? If Yori is here?" If not, the three of them could just go and shut the signal down, right?

"I'd rather have the password to access the data," Yori said, "It's easier to track data if I have official credentials to do so."

Ah, she supposed that made perfect sense. Kairi glanced at Tron. "How long until they come back?" Stars, she was already desperate to see Sora again. She blamed the year of not even remembering who he was.

Tron sighed and shook his head. "I am uncertain. It could be minutes or perhaps even hours." Because who knew what the time difference was between the outside world and here--and even more so there was no way to know where the password may be.

Kairi sighed. Perhaps she should just leave too, in that was possible? "Is it possible for me to leave? I need to catch up with Sora," She said.

The man shook his head. "The terminal they used to leave didn't have power when they arrived. We turned the power back on but we only had a small window to get them out--It's been locked down now." Tron explained seriously.

Oh, no. Oh no. Was she stuck here then, with no way out and now way for Sora and the others to come to her?

As if sensing her despair, Yori spoke up. "Tron, will they be able to return?" Her hands were clasped in front of her with a serious expression on her face.

"Oh--yes, of course they can. I doubt the MCP is too eager to allow them to leave just yet," Tron said seriously, "Speaking of, however, I need to get access to the archives. They'll be inputting the password on their end--which means I have only one chance to get in and track the signal."

Kairi nodded in agreement. "Which way is it?" She asked. She knew they should at least be near this archive, even if Sora and the others didn't get the password for a few hours yet.

Tron shot her a somewhat surprised look before he said, "I can lead us there--are you sure you wish to come?"

"Yeah. You're going to need someone to defend you while we wait, and I've got magic a plenty." Kairi held up her staff with a smile. Her magic would be more than enough to defend them from enemy programs.

The trio exchanged nods and Tron led the way up through the Canyon. No programs appeared to stand in their way, which felt off to Kairi. Shouldn't that MCP...thing know they were out and about?

Speaking of said MCP... "Who exactly is the MCP and why were you two locked up?" Kairi asked, tilting her head.

Yori gave her a small smile. "I forgot we hadn't told you everything yet. The MCP stands for Master Control Program. They were originally just a program who oversaw the network, but after User Ansem the Wise stopped using the system and disappeared some cycles ago, the MCP took over." She explained.

"And the MCP became tyrannical, refusing to allow programs to do their jobs properly or even to acknowledge the Users when they returned." Tron continued. Kairi wondered what type of expression he was making as he said it.

Kairi looked forward. So the MCP was, for all intents and purposes, the current ruler of this computer world. They were also villainous ruler, who only saw the programs under their rule as expendable. Not just the programs--but likely the Users, too.

She grimaced. Yeah, the MCP probably had something to do with the signal, she decided. Which could mean many awful things for them: The biggest of which being that the MCP knew something of the heartless.

That in itself wasn't too surprising. There was likely loads of information on heartless in the system from all of Ansem's research on the subject. What was concerning was that the MCP was willing to allow the heartless to run rampant by blocking the Claymore.

There was a possible reason as to why, but until Kairi saw heartless here, she wasn't going to even think it.

"We're here," Tron said.

Looking up, Kairi noted that the area they were within didn't seem too much different from where they had walked out into the Canyon. How strange--but she supposed there was no need to make major changes to the area in a world that seemed fairly uniform.

Yori was looking around curiously. "I've never been in this area of the Canyon before." She noted aloud.

Tron nodded. "It's not normally a place non security programs go to. It is, after all, the data center for Security." He nodded to himself before getting himself comfortable nearby.

"What are we waiting for?" Kairi asked, baffled by the action.

He glanced back at her and said, "We won't be able to access it before someone outside does it first." What was left unsaid was that they used to be able access it whenever.

Oh. She sighed and leaned back against a wall herself: If there were going to wait, than they would just have to wait. Hopefully, the others got the password soon enough.

* * *

A siren went off and Kairi jolted out of the doze she had fallen into. What? What was happening now? She looked around and to her right Yori had jolted up, her hands flying to her back where a disk was. Tron was already standing, turned to a wall--except it wasn't really a wall anymore.

Instead, there was an open doorway. The inside of the room was colorful and bright: Despite that, the room gave a heavy air of foreboding that Kairi cringed. What in the world could be causing that feeling? Especially from such a bright room?

Tron stepped forward. "It seems they got the password!" Tron declared and practically rushed through the door. Kairi shared a glance with Yori before the two followed on his tail.

The interior was just as colorful and bright as she could see from outside. Brilliant greens, yellows, and pinks were all over, decorating every inch of the room in warm light. Squares with numbers and letters hovered above what seemed to be yet another terminal, like screens.

The information on the screens zipped passed faster than Kairi could read it. Yori, on the other hand, seemed to have no such problems. She and Tron approached the terminal, the former getting ready to search for the signal using the data transfers said signal. The latter? He was going to do his best to block the MCP for as long as he could.

Kairi shifted on her feet, ready to fight. If the MCP did find them, they might send programs after them, finally. She wondered what those programs would be like--if they were or could be anything like Yori and Tron.

She shook her head. She can't let herself get cold feet just yet. The moment for that would be later.

"Okay, what now?" Kairi asked, her hands clenched on her staff so tightly her knuckles went white.

Tron was at the terminal and said, "I can get through the firewall here and then Yori will track the data. After that, we head to a terminal to wait for Users Sora, Donald, and Goofy to return."

So Donald and Goofy were here after all! Kairi felt a thrill of relief. "Okay," She said, "And if something attacks while that's going on?" Because she doubted the MCP would just let this happen.

Yori paled, one hand clenching her ID Disk. "We'll have to fight," Tron said, serious.

Okay. Kairi nodded, brandishing her staff. She could do that. She would have to do that--there was no room for any sort of doubt here, right now.

Tron's rapid tapping began and sirens went off again. They didn't stop this time: Instead they just seemed to be getting louder and worse than before. They kept going until, at each corner of the room, circles lit up.

And, her worst fears were confirmed, as heartless appeared at the corners. They were mostly black and gray, with different colored circuits on each. Most of them were yellow or red and were mounted on wheels. Wheels they used to zoom toward her.

She steadied herself. Time for some magic. Brandishing her staff, she focused--and fire! "Burn!" She yelled, setting several of the heartless on fire in one go. They buzzed in pain and she spun, smashing her staff against another heartless' head with a loud crack.

Thunder crackled across the room as she fired the spell into another cluster of heartless. There was more pained buzzing as she slid under an attack from a heartless. She kicked at its wheel and stabbed the tip of her staff into its body as she stood.

Okay, okay, that was the first wave of heartless. 

Hopefully there wasn't going to be another wave. Kairi didn't how much magic she had in her to be able to keep the fighting up. If she ran out, they'd be sitting ducks.

"Yori, track the data, now!" Tron suddenly declared.

The data transfer program rushed passed him, her hands on the terminal keyboard in moments. Tron turned around, one hand up and ready to help Yori on security and the other holding his ID disk. His expression was twisted into one of determination.

As if on cue, the next wave of heartless appeared. Kairi swung out with her staff and continued firing swafts of fire and bolts of thunder into the crowds. Tron didn't move from his spot as he tossed out his ID disk.

The ID disk shimmered as it would fly out and around Kairi. It left a trail of blue which would fade away after some time. Kairi let out a breath as it took out a heartless that had been about to attack her from behind.

She dove and smashed and burned her way through the waves. Kairi took a moment to think 'I wonder if Sora and Riku would be proud' before she was back to swinging her staff.

And then she made a misstep.

A heartless hit the back of her legs. Kairi fell to her knees. The heartless swung its club like arm towards her head. She gasped out in pain as Tron's ID Disk cut through the heartless' arm.

Kairi grimaced as she rolled back onto her knees. The second wave of the heartless were gone. She let out a breath of relief as the stinging pain from her new cuts and bruises finally hit her. At least she might be able to take a chance to breath, now.

There was a gasp and Yori turned around. "I have it! But it's not good news." The program turned around, expression serious. "It’s...coming from the MCP's housing."

Ah. Well, that was wonderful. "So. Any ideas on what to do next?" Kairi asked, wry.

The two programs exchanged looks. "We need to get out of here, first," Tron said seriously.

Kairi nodded just as seriously. Tron sped passed her and Kairi followed on his heels with Yori. Yori was tense as she pulled out her ID disk in a mirror to Tron. She eyeballed the disk for a moment: It didn't look nearly as dangerous as Tron's did. The difference between data transfer and security, maybe?

She shook her head: It didn't really matter if she knew that, right? It's not like the information would do anything for her.

They wound their way away from the data center, up towards what seemed to be a giant tower. Why they were headed there, Kairi didn't know. Yori at least seemed to understand why and what the tower was for, as she hummed in understanding.

The trio ducked into a large empty room, the circular walls distant from them at all times. It left Kairi feeling suspicious as the three of them raced across the way. It almost felt like a battle arena than just an ordinary room.

...She's being silly. This wasn't the Olympus Coliseum.

Moreover, she didn't have many clear memories of that world that weren't heavily tinted by Sora's feelings of the world. The fact that she could remember her time with Sora as if she was ghost tied to him--it wasn't something she had shared with anyone.

Granted, to her, it didn't seem that important. It wasn't as if that knowledge would help them with anything, she thought as they entered the tower. It was...just a thing Kairi could remember.

It wasn't important.

Kairi looked up to the top of the tower as Tron approached the center. "What is this place, anyway?" Kairi asked.

"It's an I/O Tower." Yori explained. "It's used to transfer updated and data to programs from users. I...don't know what Tron is doing right now."

They both frowned at Tron. The security program had raised his ID disk to the ceiling of the tower. To Kairi's stunned surprise, the ID disk actually floated right out of Tron's hands and up and up, into a beam of light.

She stared wide eyed after it until it floated back down. Tron's hands caught the disk as he returned to the floor of the tower. He flicked around the disk, a screen popping up as he did so. 

Yori stepped passed Kairi and jogged down next to him. "What is that? How did the users send data to us?" She asked, peering down at the disk.

"A program to cut through the MCP's security walls. And I can only assume that Sora and the others managed to find the password for the system." Tron noted.

If Sora had found the password, did that mean they were going to be coming back?

As if to answer the question, a terminal behind them beeped loudly. Tron gasped in surprise. "I forgot that terminal was here."

Kairi perked up. "The same as a terminal from the Pit Cells?" She asked.

Tron nodded to her. In the same moment, a light appeared from the terminal. Three forms materialized in front of them, Donald and Goofy's forms becoming visible faster.

Sora formed last and Kairi flung herself forward. He squawked when he finally realized she was attached to him. "K-Kairi?! Are you okay?" Sora gasped.

She nodded. "I'm glad you three are okay." Kairi whispered into his ear.

"Yeah." Sora coughed and extracted himself from Kairi's hug. "Hey, Tron! Uh...and?? Hi to you too?"

He was giving Yori a confused look, looking torn between greeting her as a friend and asking who she was. Kairi smiled and tugged Sora over to her. "This is Yori! I was put in a cell with her." She smiled at Yori.

Yori smiled back. "It's nice to meet you, Sora. Kairi and Tron have only good things to say about you, Donald, and Goofy." Yori tucked some of her loose hair back into her helm.

Tron tapped his fingers against his ID disk and said, "I don't wish to interrupt but we need to get that signal off."

Nodding, Sora said, "About that. We, uh, kinda need to get rid of it. Like, uh, now." He winced at the expressions on their faces.

"Why?" Kairi asked. Sure, they had every intention to shut it down now anyway, but it was...odd to see him so serious. Had something happened outside?

Sora grimaced and patted his pants as if to dust them off. "Uuuh, there's a heartless invasion going on outside?" Sora winced apologetically. "And they could really use the Claymore."

What?? "An invasion?? What, how?" Kairi asked, baffled. How could that many heartless have gathered? And did that mean the world's heart was in danger?

Donald stepped forward, waving his staff. "They were gathering at Maleficent’s old castle when we were here last." He explained.

Nodding, Goofy hefted his shield up. He said, "Yeah. Guess they were planning this for a while."

"Then perhaps we should head to the MCP then?" Yori suggested.

Sora faltered, looking from Kairi's grimace and back to Yori. "What do you mean?" He asked.

Tron swept passed all of them and said, "The MCP either has the signal or is the signal itself." His hand was clenched on his disk, Kairi noted.

The explanation left the mood sour. After all, they were now on a time limit of only hours instead of a one that gave them time to rest. "How do we get to the MCP?" Kairi wondered out loud.

Yori was suddenly passed her and heading toward the I/O Tower's exit. "We can use the Solar Sailor." She declared. "It'll be faster than any of the other options."

Oh. Wait, hadn't Yori mentioned that solar thing before, when she introduced herself? Wasn't it supposed to be some data transfer thing? If so, then that really would be faster, if it was anywhere as fast as Yori going over data at both the wall-portal and the data center.

"Yori," Tron said, smiling faintly, "Lead the way."

She nodded to Tron and then swerved out of the tower and out into the circular room outside. The rest of the group followed after and in one moment, Kairi was summoning her staff. "Kairi?" Sora yelped.

Kairi glared. "Something's here," She said. Sora frowned, glanced around, and then summoned his keyblade with an expression of surprise.

So he sensed it too.

"Watch out!" Tron suddenly yelled.

Falling on the ground, Kairi hasped as a massive club like arm swung past where she had been standing. Ice flashed passed her and into the body of what had attacked her: Another heartless. Unlike the ones from the center, however, this one actually seemed deadly.

It was round like a Large Body with limbs that could detach from its body. It had swung one of those arms at Kairi only moments ago--and was already swinging it again at her.

She dove forward and pointed the tip of her staff up at the body. "Burn!" Kairi yelled, fire impacting on the outside of the heartless' shell.

"Nice going, Kairi!" Sora yelled.

Kairi smiled to herself as both Tron and Yori's ID disks spun around her. They clashed against the metal shell as Sora swept up next to her. He started bashing at the shell and Kairi took the chance to back out of the heartless' striking range.

Twirling her staff with a flourish, she cast a Thunder spell at the heartless. It buzzed furiously at the strike even as strange spheres popped out of it.

What were those for? Before Kairi could ask out loud, Tron was already sweeping them up for some reason of another. "Tron?" She called out.

"Need them to destroy the lock!" He called back, screens of data flickering around him.

Lock? Kairi cast a look at the doorway opposite the I/O Tower. Over the door, a flat image of a padlock was adorned. The door was locked, huh?

...Wait. "Sora, would you be able to unlock that lock?" She yelled over to him, brandishing her staff with a spell of fire.

"Uh, dunno until I try!" Sora yelped as he leaped over a club arm. He made to run over to the door but every time he took even a step towards it, the heartless swung its club down on him.

Kairi winced as he blocked a particularly nasty blow. At this rate it might just be easier to let Tron finish what he was doing. She narrowed her eyes and spun back around.

Alright. If he needed those weird orbs to bust the lock, she would help provide them. "Burn!" She yelled again, fire washing over the heartless for the third time.

And then she felt a club ram into her gut.

All air left her body as she went flying across the room. She hadn't even noticed the club--hadn't noticed until she was already flying. As soon as she hit the wall, Kairi cried out in pain.

"Kairi!"! Someone yelled: She couldn't recognize the voice, with her mind suddenly fuzzy. Fuzzy like Donald's feathers maybe? She's never touched Donald's feathers. Maybe she should see if they were fuzzy.

Warm light washed over her as something gave a tinny shriek. Kairi winced sharply and pushed herself back up to her knees. Across the room, Sora was wailing on the heartless with a furious expression, his clothes a brilliant crimson.

Goofy was nowhere to be seen.

Next to her, Donald was casting something with a green glow. "Donald...?" She asked.

"It's fine," The magician said seriously, "You're fine. The fight's almost done."

Were his wings shaking? "Sorry. I should've been paying better attention." Kairi apologized.

Donald shook his head. "Naw, you were doing good for your first boss! Sometimes they just...overwhelm you. That's why you go in a team." He clenched his hands on his own staff

She smiled faintly. Kairi said, "Yeah. That's why we have a team."

Pushing herself to her feet, Kairi grabbed her staff from where it had fallen next to her. "What should I do?" She asked the duck.

He huffed. "Keep doing what you were doing. Just--keep a better eye on not getting hit!" Donald declared before he raced back into the fight.

Kairi smiled to herself before she flowed him. "Strike!" She yelled, firing a Thunder spell before her.

The heartless shrieked, a tinny scream like metal scrapping against another piece of metal. Had that been what she heard earlier? She glared and rapped her staff against the front chest piece of the heartless.

"Get back!" Tron yelled suddenly.

Startled, Kairi stepped back as he commanded. Screens flashed around her, darkening the room until all that was left were the screens, Tron, and Sora. Sora raised his keyblade and then slashed it down, an explosion of light expanding from the two.

The heartless didn't make a sound as it was vaporized. Kairi stared at where it had once stood. That was...quick. Why hadn't they done that earlier?

"The door is unlocked." Yori's voice was a quiet echo in the massive hall of a room.

Sora grinned at them from his spot next to Tron. "That was great! Let's--hopefully not have to do that again! No offense, Tron."

The security program chuckled. "No offense taken. It did require quite a lot of data to pull that off." Tron mused aloud.

Data? Was he talking about the orbs he had been gathering? If that was the case, she supposed she understood better why they hadn't been able to do that earlier.

"So you need to collect data to do that?" She asked.

Sora nodded. "Yeah. Attacks like that always need something to power it." He laughed wryly at the admission.

Huh. Kairi wiped the sweat from her brow. "Okay," She said.

* * *

Sora fussed over her on their walk to the Solar Sailor. Kairi couldn't work up the energy to be mad at him, as the other teenager needed to get his nerves out somehow. Better through worrying than fighting heartless twice his size.

Though, she was getting sick of his repeated Cure casts. She reached out and grabbed his hand as they stepped into the middle of the sailor, stopping him mid cast. "Sora," Kairi said, "I'm okay."

His expression twisted in worry for a moment before he covered up with a bright smile. "I-I know that! You and Riku are pretty tough. I know you can handle it!" He laughed sheepishly. He still seemed worried and scared in equal measure.

"That's not what I meant." Kairi muttered, both of their weapons vanishing as the sailor started up. "I meant--I meant you don't have to push yourself to cover me." _Not if it gets you hurt in the process._

...That had already happened once. Kairi wasn't sure she could bear it a second time.

Sora let his smile fall. "Guess you can still read me really well huh?" He looked towards the sky, wrapping his arms behind his head. "I guess--when I saw you fall like that...all I could think about was Hollow Bastion."

With a pang, she knew exactly what he meant. The moment he had seen her again, in the middle of the room; right in front of the keyhole. The time when Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, had told him Kairi's heart had fled to him for shelter.

"Sorry." When he gave her a weird look, she clarified. "For not watching out for the club. I didn't mean to scare you like that."

He shook his head. "That's not your fault either! This stuff--it just happens. People get hurt. We get hurt. I guess...I just have to get used to you being in danger." Sora looked unhappy with this conclusion.

Kairi shook her head. "Sora," She said, "As long as I'm a Princess of Heart, I'm in danger. And that's not something I can change. It's better if I'm close to a team, than out all by myself. I mean, can you imagine what would’ve happened if we hadn’t met up?"

Sora blinked at her before he grinned. It was a real one. "Probably nothing good? And--Staying close to me, Donald, and Goofy is a good idea then??" He asked.

"Of course!!" She chirped. "Someone has to keep you out of trouble!"

The two share a laugh, their shoulders brushing. It was a bit bittersweet, because Riku should be there too. This...all should've been the three of them, fighting against the darkness. Not just Sora and, now, her.

They had to find Riku before her worry drove her crazy.

Yori called out that it would be at least ten minutes before they arrived at their destination. Kairi glanced at Sora and the two of them sat down next to each other. She let out a sigh of relief at sitting down for the first time in what felt like hours.

It might've been hours, actually. She rubbed what sweat was still present across her forehead clear. "We're not getting much of a break, huh?" Kairi muttered.

"Well, on the bright side, we're almost to the end?" Sora offered, tilting his head toward her.

Donald snorted as he stood over the two. "We've still got the invasion to take care of." He pointed out, feathered wings on his hips.

Sora groaned and flopped backward. "Don't remind me!" He whined.

Letting out a sharp laugh, Kairi reached over and poked his cheek. She said, "Aw, don't be a lazy bum! Like you said we're almost done. We don't have to worry too much longer."

They shared yet another laugh for a moment before Goofy and Donald fully joined them in sitting down. "Lazy bum, huh?" Donald leaned closer with a wicked grin.

Kairi cackled as Sora whined. "Kairi, don't tell him!" Sora complained.

"No, I'm tell him." She told Sora. "Okay, so did Sora ever tell you about the raft we were working on? Well, Sora ended up sleeping throughout half of us building the whole raft."

Sora whined harder as both Donald and Goofy started laughing, leaning against one another. Kairi smiled at them, bumping Sora's shoulder with her own. He bumped her shoulder back and they grinned at one another.

The solar sailor shuddered and the four all looked up at Tron and Yori. Yori looked panicked as she waved her hands at them, clearly worried about something. As if in response to her worry, Tron was pulling out his ID disk.

What is he doing? "Tron?" Kairi called out, shifting to get up.

A Heartless answered her call as it fell almost right on top of her head. "Kairi!" Sora yelped, his keyblade snapping into his hand.

Kairi responded by using her staff like a baseball bat to knock the heartless away. The staff gave a satisfying thwak as the heartless went flying across the sailor. It collided with another heartless and Kairi shifted up to her feet.

"I'm okay," She said as she clocked another heartless across its head.

Sora hesitated before nodding and turning away to club another heartless with his keyblade. It was one of those heartless that she was fairly certain were called 'world specific' heartless. They're so strange, she noted as she burned another heartless.

She would have to ask Jiminy about them, when they had a break. Maybe on the next world trip? She smiled faintly at the thought before wincing: Kairi had gotten too distracted, allowing a couple of heartless to get too close.

Warm green light rolled over her and she glanced over at Donald. The court magician gave her a thumbs up with his feathery hands before going back into the fray. She...really needed to learn how to heal.

Actually, speaking of magic...

Kairi blocked another heartless attack with her barrier spell. She bared her teeth in a grin as she blew a heartless over the edge of the sailor with a thunder spell. A moment later, the solar sailor rocked back into life.

She stumbled with the movement. "Sorry!" Yori called out. "I forgot to mention: We're nearing our max for the amount of data the sailor can handle per transfer. Unfortunately, that means if any of those heartless show up, the sailor won't move."

With a soft hum, Kairi nodded in understanding while Sora pumped his fist. "We can handle all that!" Sora declared.

Yori smiled at them and returned to her work on piloting the sailor. As it was, most of the time was spent just talking. Kairi ended up talking about her short time away from Sora, considering she had been throwing around thunder earlier.

Their talk was interrupted twice by heartless attacks until they reached their stop. It was rather barren as she noted the rocky landscape: The area they had in before had been rather modern. It had more in common with Hollow Bastion and Twilight Town than, say, Destiny Islands.

If anything, this landscape reminded her of the wilderness of Destiny Islands, save for two things. One was the massive tower in the center of the rocky outcroppings. The other was the terminal near the solar sailor stop.

"That isn't scary or ominous at all." Donald deadpanned.

Kairi snickered.

They regrouped around a terminal, which seemed rather useless. She frowned at it as Tron poked around. Neither he nor Yori seemed able to use it or even make it turn on. What was it even for?

"Maybe we should just try the door?" Sora asked, pointing at the tower.

Everyone looked up towards said tower. "That seems like a good idea to me!" Goofy agreed.

The six of them headed up to the tower and stopped as the ground shook. A voice echoed from within the tower followed by a second voice. "The MCP and Sark." Tron murmured. "If we're going to fight them to stop that signal, we're going to have to be careful."

"Will you be able to get the security down?" Yori asked worriedly.

Tron nodded and the off worlders exchanged looks: Kairi wondered if they had any idea what Yori meant. Shaking her head, Kairi kicked the dust off her boots as they stepped up the metal pathway up to the tower.

Sora stopped at what appeared to be the door and knocked on it. "Hello?" Sora called out and waited for a response.

The conversation between Sark and the MCP continued.

"...Just unlock the door." Donald grumbled. "We don't have time to be polite right now!"

The keyblade wielder looked at Donald sheepishly before summoning his keyblade. He pointed the tip of it at the door and a beam of light hit the door. It broke apart into sparks of data, leaving the doorway open.

Weird, Kairi decided.

They stepped through, pausing only to peer into the arena they would be fighting in. The arena was circular in design, with a path all around it. However, in the center of the room was a deep abyss that seemed empty of anything but darkness.

"--You!" A figure in a gray full body suit and red lights across it. The man--assumingly the Sark Tron just mentioned--glowered furiously at Tron specifically. "How did you get here?"

...Had they really not noticed them arrive? Kairi was fairly sure that none of them had been trying not to alert the MCP or Sark.

"Commander Sark!" A monotone voice vibrated the room. "I told you that they had arrived. Take care of them, now."

A flat red face spun into existence in the center of the room. It spun around and around like a cylinder, whirling furiously. Kairi stared at it because--well, somehow, it was menacing. It might be the story Yori had told her or maybe it was the voice, but it sent shivers down her spine.

Sark growled and pulled out an ID disk, tossing it furiously at Tron. Sora intercepted it with his keyblade. Yori pressed up against Kairi's side and said, "We need to keep Sark off Tron: He's the only one who can break through the MCP's security!"

Kairi dodged another deflected ID disk. "Can't we just hit it?" She asked, pointing at the cylinder she assumed was the MCP.

"No--" A blizzara spell from Donald zipped passed and exploded across a shield around the MCP. Said shield vanished a moment later: It seemed it only appeared when the MCP was in danger. "There's a shield." Yori finished.

Goofy slipped up on the other side of Kairi. "Yori, will you help me cover the others if any heartless show up?" Kairi and Yori followed his finger to where he was pointing: A small amount of shadow and wheel heartless were appearing from the shadows.

Yori nodded. "Yes, let's go." She pulled out her own ID disk and the two hurried away.

Turning away, Kairi narrowed her eyes. Time to get Sark's attention away from Tron. "Sora!" She called, throwing a thunder at Sark's back.

The program screeched and rolled away from the blow. Sora took a chance to knock the program into a wall behind him. "Tron, can you take out that shield?" Sora asked Tron.

He nodded. "Yes, I can! I just need some time." Tron raised his hands and screens appeared. He fully immersed himself into the screens while Kairi slipped passed him. Donald joined her and Sora as they get ready to defend Tron from Sark.

Sark growled. "Fine! If you truly wish to be derezzed today, then I shall grant your wish. Just as I have to Tron's other allies!" The red program lashed out with his ID disk and Kairi cast Barrier in defense.

The disk flew back and Sora dove forward with a strike. Sark gasped in pain and Donald started firing off a chain of blizzara and thundara in the program's face. Sora instantly dodged to the side to avoid the splash of frost and lightning.

Kairi cast another barrier spell before swinging her staff around to collide with Sark's head. He flung backwards and banged his fist against the ground. Sark stood back up, his face twisted into a furious snarl.

It was so strange: Both Tron and Yori felt different than other people Kairi had met, yet they still felt like people. The MCP felt like they were something trying to be beyond a person yet it would never be able to do that. Sark, though, felt like he wasn't even trying to be either.

He felt like a person. Granted, a person who wanted nothing more than to watch them die; but a person none the less.

Of course, that was the moment the MCP let out a roar. It was the first hint of any emotion, and it was because Tron was starting to break through the security. Sark panicked from where he was, still injured.

"Commander Sark!" The MCP's voice rumbled through the tower. "I am giving you an upgrade. Get rid of these Users and Rebellious Programs."

Kairi made a face. What kind of upgrade could he give him to make him more dangerous? Unless the MCP repaired his injuries too, then it wouldn't matter much.

Sark grew two stories tall.

She stared up at him. Okay, never mind. That would probably be a good upgrade--especially as the injuries he had earlier looked like something you might get from a playful cat and not a battle to the death.

Wind rushed passed her, followed by Sark's leg. Sora had dodged to the side, his keyblade ramming into the back of Sark's leg. Kairi winced and rolled forward so that she was behind Sark's legs. She raised her staff and fired thunder at Sark's back.

He snarled and turned, intending to attack her. Sark stopped as Sora's keyblade slashed through the program's leg. It didn't cut all the way through, yet the front of his leg was sparking and fizzling with broken data.

Sark fell to one knee.

Sora clobbered him in the face and Donald fired fira right after. He roared in pain from the attacks and Kairi gave a bitter smile: Of course that would hurt.

"I got it!" Tron suddenly yelled, drawing their attention back to him. The security shielding the MCP was broken, shards of glass-like data falling down into the void.

Just as she was about to join him in firing spells at the MCP, Sark stood up. His fist flew out and clipped Sora, causing the teenager to be thrown back by the force. The kingdom key went sailing through the air and bounced along the edge of the path, tittering near the void.

Kairi panicked.

She couldn't heal, she thought as she dropped her staff. Kairi can barely do any magic and her staff wasn't really made for the strikes she kept using it for. Her practice with swords she had done during the year was useless.

How could she really help, with so little skill and experience on her side? Kairi didn't know, she admitted to herself as she snapped up the keyblade.

The one thing she did know was that she wasn't going to let Sora be killed by Sark.

Kairi swung the keyblade wildly at Sark's legs, tears blurring her sight as it collided with his shin. She could feel it collapsed inward with the strike and Sark fall to his knees. Yet she moved passed him to where Sora was struggling to his feet, Donald at his side and casting healing magic.

"Sora!" She gasped out, feeling breathless. "I--Are you okay?!"

He let out his own breathy gasp. "I think so? That hit me a lot harder than I thought it would." Sora looked up at Sark, who was slowly repairing his damaged legs. "Did you do that with your staff?"

She shook her head and held out the kingdom key. Sora stared down at in surprise, reaching out and taking it from her hands. "How did you pick up the keyblade?" He asked.

"I just picked it up?" She furrowed her brow in clear confusion. "It's--I didn't do anything special."

Sora seemed ready to pursue the topic but let it go as Donald lightly smacked his arm. "We've gotta hit up the MCP!" The duck reminded them.

Kairi and Sora both looked up towards Tron and the broken security. Goofy and Yori were both there, having taken care of the heartless that had come, presumably at the MCP's command. Tron was also fighting the MCP at the same time, his ID disk flying.

Tron stopped to look at them. "If we stop the MCP, Sark will be weakened enough that we can handle him much more easily." Assuming Sark didn't just fall apart the moment the fight ended.

"My staff--" Kairi started but Sora raised his hand. The staff disappeared from where she had dropped it

He smiled at her. "You can summon it back now!" Sora told her before throwing out a blizzara at the MCP.

Kairi let her staff fall back into her hands and she slipped into place between Sora and Donald. Her magic was weak, she thought, but at least it was something.

Something was better than nothing at all.

The MCP whirled furiously, his voice vibrating as he commanded Sark. Kairi couldn't make out what he was saying, beyond that. What she did make out was Tron calling out to Sora and then the two firing...a data laser at the MCP?

Huh. When had they time to collect data orbs? She hadn't seen any in the room...? Either way, Kairi still really wanted to know how they did that.

However they did it, data orbs or no, she'll just have add it to the list of things she needed to learn.

At that thought, Sark stood, his repair finished. Then the MCP screamed. And Kairi? She dropped to the ground as something exploded over her head. Guess that attack of theirs did more damage than she thought.

Kairi looked up as Sark started screaming too, shrinking to his original size and clutching at himself. It was as if he was breaking apart, his data pulling away from his seams. It was also like he was dying.

She looked away again.

"Tron?" She called out, her voice sounding terribly quiet.

The security program shook his head, looking back and forth between the broken and spilling data of the MCP and Sark. "There's nothing to be done. They're both derezzing now," He said simply.

So they were dying, after all. Kairi felt bad, like she had rubbed motor oil all over her arms. They were trying to kill them first and had killed others before that, but even so...

Sora's hand touch her elbow. "Let's go shut down the signal," He said.

Kairi nodded in agreement and the group pulled away from the remains of broken programs.

* * *

She shivered as Hollow Bastion's cool air rolled over her. With the MCP defeated, they had gone back to the powered down terminal. They had managed to power it back on, as with the MCP gone, the power was no longer being diverted.

That terminal had also been where the signal had been coming from. With it powered down the way it had been, it allowed the disruptive signal to continue going out while stopping others from turning it off. A brilliant plan.

Especially considering the MCP likely doubted their group'd ever be able to take them down.

But that didn't matter. Right now, Kairi knew, they had to move to meet up with their friends. There was still an invasion going on, even if the Claymore was working again.

"Where to first?" Kairi asked Sora.

He smiled tightly. "Ansem's office, I think."

She returned the tight smile with her own tired smile. “Then let’s go,” Kairi said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you made it here--I hope you enjoyed it!! and also have a great day <3

**Author's Note:**

> quick note as to why sora backtracks on kairi coming with him: the organization kinda slipped his mind because best friend??? best friend!!
> 
> (sora hyperfocuses on stuff a lot, i've noticed)
> 
> anyway feedback is always appreciated! If you want to know about updates and stuff, check out my twitter (@DreamyRequiem) or my writing blog (@dreamerdarkrequiem)!


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